We adopted a shelter dog three weeks ago. The first two weeks she couldn't wait to go for a walk - now she puts her tail between her legs and won't even go out the door. We never had a problem with walking her on a leash prior to this, no pulling, etc. Now she sits down and refuses to move. At 50+ pounds, she's too big to carry! ;)
Obviously, she's afraid of something, but how do we get her over this fear? She's an active lab and really should walk twice a day, but we are at our wits end as to what to do.
2007-08-14 07:16:31 · 5 answers · asked by penpapercoffee 1 in Pets ➔ Dogs
Try walking in reverse and I don't mean backwards. This means physically take the dog out some place and walk home. Sometimes a little different perspective can change a dog's approach to what was seen as a problem.
2007-08-14 08:52:59 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
My dog used to refuse to walk past our driveway (where her underground fence ran) so everytime we wanted to walk her my husband had to pick her up and carry her well over the line even though our other dog walked right over on the leash. After reading the Cesar Milan's book, I put her on the leash one day, grabbed my other dog and walked straight over without looking back. She hesitated for a second but with just a little jerk on the leash she then walked right over and has been fine ever since. Your case sounds more extreme but my point is, the more attention she gets for the behavior the more it reinforces it. Once she gets outside, does she walk normally? If so, put the leash on and walk out the door without looking back. If she doesn't follow, have a friend or someone big enough shove her butt out the door and then continue on as if nothing had happened. Once she is walking normally, you may want to give her a treat but I don't think it's essential, the walk should be reward enough. If she won't walk even once she gets out the door, perhaps you can put her in the car, drive down the road a bit and then walk home?
2007-08-14 14:40:53 · answer #2 · answered by Meems 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Get her on the leash and encourage her with a treat or a piece of lunch meat. Praise her alot once she goes out there and act like its no big deal. From an episode I had seen of the Dog Whisperer, he just clicked on the leash and started walking like it was nothing and the dog followed. Good luck to you!
2007-08-14 14:28:07 · answer #3 · answered by Kristen 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
try getting some treats, go out the door, and show her the treats. say come here, and let her smell the treats.. keep walking backwards and try to get her outside. give her the treat when she is outside. and giver her another one after... close the door, and put the leash on her.. after you get the leash on her, give her another treat. this shows her that outside is a good thing, rather than bad. also, you can ask your friend, neighbor, or anybody you know who has a dog if they can bring the dog outside into your yard, and start playing fetch with it.. make sure your dog can see what's going on because if she sees that the other dog is having fun outside, she might go outside and play too!! good luck!
2007-08-14 14:26:18 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Bring along a box of liver treats. You can get them at Walmart. They are called Hollywood Stars. My choco lab will do anything for them. Start walking her to the door with a liver treat and when she gets outside, give her a liver treat, then when you close the door, give her a liver treat.
This is called positive re-inforcement. It works wonders.
2007-08-14 14:26:07 · answer #5 · answered by happydawg 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋